Holy Cow!

An Indian Adventure

By: Sarah Macdonald

Narrated by: Kate Hosking

Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

After backpacking her way around India, Sarah Macdonald decides she hates the country with a passion. When a beggar at the airport reads her palm and insists she will one day return, and for love, she screams "Never!" and gives the country, and him, the finger.

But 11 years later, the prophecy comes true. When the love of Sarah's life is posted to India, she quits her dream job as a national radio presenter to follow him to the most polluted city on earth, New Delhi. It seems like the ultimate sacrifice for love and it almost kills her, literally.

Often hilarious, sometimes hair-raising, and always entertaining, Holy Cow is a rollercoaster ride through a land of chaos and contradiction, from spiritual retreats and crumbling nirvanas to war zones and New Delhi nightclubs, that only a woman on a mission to save her soul, her love life, and her sanity, can survive.

©2002 Sarah Macdonald (P)2003 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd

Critic reviews

"A lively, snappy travelogue." (Booklist)

"[Macdonald] brings a reporter's curiosity, interviewing skills, and eye for detail to everything she encounters, and winningly captures 'the drama, the dharma, the innocent exuberance of the festivals, the intensity of the living, the piety in playfulness, and the embrace of living day by day'." (Publishers Weekly)

"Prepare for a fast-moving and masterful narration by Kate Hosking. Her characterization of the Indian characters is nuanced and fun. The contrast with the distinctive Australian accents of MacDonald and other ex-pats adds to the sense of adventure and excitement and provides a backdrop for spiritual understanding." (AudioFile)

Yuck!

I could not get past the annoying voice of the narrator- after about 4 hours I could not listen any further. Book seemed fair- maybe I will read it someday!

Not worth it

I bought this book expecting a light hearted story about moving to India. The first half delivered as expected but about halfway through Sarah got spiritual and religious and it went downhill from there. If you are looking for a funny read about exploring a new country and culture this is not the book for you.

Boring!!

The book started funny but soon turned into one boring reading/listening. I commute 2 hours each day and this book almost made me fall asleep in the car. I had to stop listening. This book was a total waste of my credits.

Holy wandering boredom

I regularly enjoy and engage Audible books as a means of keeping myself mentally active for lengthy overnight drives with my family. An interesting tale with a reasonable narrator can keep me alert for the duration of any unabridged audio book. Holy Cow did not help me in this case.

I can't blame the narration - it was done well and the book was read with an appropriately Australian accent. The content is what I blame for requiring two sleep stops on a recent drive from Virginia to Ontario.

I endured listening to all 10.5 hours of Holy Cow even though the book never seemed to express a clear style. It is neither a novel or a travelogue, not truly a biography nor a essay compilation. In her credits, the author thanks those who suggested she transform her "rants" into a book. I do not thank these people and, unlike most of my Audible collection, I won't be buying a paper copy of Holy Cow for my bookshelf.

holy cow reader

the reader is too nervous

A snob's perspective

I think she is over dramatizing the issues.

tower of bable

ZERO RATING! ceaseless babble...on and on and on...

I couldn't finish it

I enjoy books exploring the different cultures and customs of the world. I enjoy a well-written memoir exploring those discoveries, but I finally put this one aside about 3/4 of the way through it. I tried, I truly tried to finish it, but with so many wonderful books out there waiting to be read, I couldn't justify spending another minute listening to this poor, lost woman attempt to "find herself" or the meaning of life that she was so desperately seeking.

I had read reviews mentioning that there was a lot of "religion" here and knowing India's varied religious background, I was prepared for some of that. I was looking for a book that explored the people, the cultures and the sites of India from the perspective of an "outsider." While there was a bit of that, mostly this book became a tedious exploration, not of Indian sites, people and regions, but almost solely of one woman's attempt to find meaning in life through the various religious practices found there. When one didn't work, she'd jump to another and when that failed to bring peace, she'd try another group. Since I am at peace this endless jumping made me first of all sad for her that she is so obviously lost and unable to find her way and number 2 weary of the endless detailed speculations about hopeless religious practices.

Know what you are getting

So many people said they loved this book I thought I’d give it a try. But about 1/2 way through the book it veers off into giving you an overview of various religions and their history, and not really a very interesting overview. I have kept with it to see if it ever gets back to a story line but I only have an hour left and so far no. Seriously considering scraping it and returning the title. Not at all what I thought or what the summary says it is.

Why didn't I stop sooner?!?

Clearly I was looking for something different than what the other reviewers described. I made it to the middle of the second part. Definitely long enough to feel confident in saying that life is far too short to spend time on this one. I found myself fast forwarding throughout the book to get to the point, and discovered that there was none. Good or bad, we've all had some sort of religious experience at some point in our lives. The sad fact is that they are usually much more interesting to us than they are to the general public. Other people do not necessarily care about them; nor should they.